Explain

Sestina at Poets.org Sestina at poetrysoup

The sestina is a verse form that originated in the 1500s. It's an interesting writing exercise but the form is difficult to wrap one's mind around. Wikipedia has a good entry if you'd like to go into further depth but basically you pick 6 end words, also known as "Hero Words". Each stanza has a different pattern of end words and it concludes with an envoi containing all the hero words.

Step 1: Fill in the hero words. Step 2: Opium? Step 3: Poetry. Step 4: Copy Result. Step 5: Profit like a poet.

Stanza 1

	Hero Words

Stanza 2

Stanza 3

Stanza 4

Stanza 5

Stanza 6

Envoi

Result